Comments on: To learn a foreign language listen to it first.

By: Larry

Larry — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:07:44 +0000

I appreciate this article. I’m in my 50s and took German in High School. I’ve been trying to pick it up again over the past few years, but the vocabulary just enters my brain and leaves it immediately — but I’ve noticed that since downloading an app on my phone for Deutsche Welle and listening to the live news, etc., that the words “stick” much better as I try to learn them. I put absolutely no stress on myself to fully understand, but just listen — and I am picking up more in the past few weeks than I did in the past year using other means. I plan on continuing this…

By: Ulrike Rettig

Ulrike Rettig — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:07:42 +0000

Hi, just came across your 2009 blog about your daughter’s “franco babble.” I was struck by how much your description matched what I noticed with our grandson as I was writing my blog for gamesforlanguage.com (and I linked to yours). In my blog, I also describe the experience my husband and I had when we were learning Italian.
I fully agree with you that Beginner-level language courses should be light on grammar and focus on listening first. That’s what we are trying with our gamesforlanguage.com program. We are currently beta testing the first few lessons of German 1 and will add a few French 1 lessons shortly. I would be interested in your thoughts.

By: Minh

Minh — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:44:58 +0000

OMG, I love all the things you’ve written, especially the last part. I’m learning French in that way, immerse in listening very much. I have a channel on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/CyanSky214, with films being easy to listen. I hope there are s.o to help me improve that project ^^

By: Tim 2

Tim 2 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:41:59 +0000

If started to learn German, practically just by listening, as I live in Australia and travel to uni an hour each way four days a week so I listen to it in the car, which I’ve been doing for aprox a month so far.

By: Elisa

Elisa — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:56:56 +0000

I’m 47 years old and I have been learning English for many years, but until 40 I didn’t study it intensely. Now I’m fluent,I attended different English courses, I like reading in English, and I’m fairly good on speaking. I couldn’t imagine to learn at my age this language and when I was at school I wasn’t so good , but I’m fond of it. By the way I’m confident in the way I speak.I think that the age it isn’t important in the process of learning, but it depends how much you like to learn new things.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:46:53 +0000

Actually adults have much greater potential to learn faster than children. The more languages you learn the faster you are able to acquire new languages. I have passed 20 for conversational ability and mid-30s for comprehension of a news broadcast. I am faster now than every before. There are numerous reasons for this. Not all are analytical. The emotional aspect – being able to feel the language and the ability to identify with a new language and culture are critical.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:35:03 +0000

Good thoughts Karenne. Like you I would be very interested to start learning a new language with intensive listening as an experiment. The hard part is finding the time, especially as I'm already trying to get my Spanish up to scratch. To my knowledge research on the differences in language acquistion in adults and children isn't very conclusive. We assume that what we have already heard is correct, namely that after age 12 our capacity for language-learning is permanently altered. But not everyone agrees. Steve Kaufmann has some interesting thoughts on this, suggesting that adults are actually better language-learners than children.

By: Karenne Sylvester

Karenne Sylvester — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:46:02 +0000

Hi ya, Simon

Very interesting points on acquisition. I’m still learning German and learned Spanish when I was in Ecuador.

I definitely have noticed that my listening comprehension in both languages came first. Way, way, before being able to speak.

But Spanish was much faster as there wasn’t any other option but to learn it and I was constantly surrounded by it. In Germany, so many people speak English that pretty quickly, they all speak that around me and I don’t get much real practice of my own.

Still everyday I notice that I ‘understand’ more.

I do agree that kids and adults are totally different but actually I wonder how much.

The best way, of course, is to do some action research rather than just theorize so if I ever ‘have’ to learn a 3rd language I think I’ll make it a point to start learning by only listening (intensively) and see if I learn faster rather than launching straight into classes with endless grammar!

xKarenne

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Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:56:08 +0000

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